EA has announced that Anthem servers will be sunset on January 12, 2026, effectively making the game unplayable.

“Anthem was designed to be an online-only title so once the servers go offline, the game will no longer be playable,” EA said in an update. “If you previously purchased Anthem, the game can still be downloaded from a digital library and played until January 12, 2026.”

Anthem will also be removed from the EA Play playlist on August 15, 2025, and EA says that the sunsetting of the game has not led to any layoffs at developer BioWare. Anthem joins a growing number of live-service games that have had the plug pulled on them. Other high-profile games that faced a short shelf-life included Marvel’s Avengers, Battleborn, and Super Bomberman R, and in an extreme example, Sony’s Concord, which was pulled after a disastrous two weeks.

Anthem struggled at launch back in 2019, and according to EA CEO Andrew Wilson, it was because the game attempted to appeal to two different audiences. Despite its middling reception and dwindling player numbers, developer BioWare has kept busy since interest on Anthem died out.

Times are tough for the revered studio as its last game, Dragon Age: The Veilguard, failed to meet EA’s expectations and it’s estimated that fewer than 100 staff members are left, down from its peak of over 400 employees. The studio’s next game is a new entry in the Mass Effect series, which is being developed by a “core” team.